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2 Chronicles 26:16–21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Chronicles 26:16–21
Uzziah trespasses at the incense altar and develops a skin disease
When he is strong he takes a censer into the priests' work
But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Azariah the priest goes in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, valiant men. They withstand Uzziah: it appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God.
The Chronicler draws a hard line between royal power and priestly incense. Eighty priests standing down a successful king is institutional resistance, not a claim that clergy are unaccountable in every age. Pride here is a specific trespass at a specific altar.
A skin condition appears on his forehead while he is still angry
Uzziah is wroth, and has a censer in his hand. While he is wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar. Azariah the chief priest and all the priests look; he is leprous in his forehead; they thrust him out; he himself also hastes to go out, because the LORD had smitten him. Uzziah is a leper unto the day of his death, dwells in a several house, and is cut off from the house of the LORD. Jotham his son is over the king's house, judging the people of the land.
The traditional KJV word leprosy renders tsara'at, a ritual skin-condition category in this narrative, broader than modern Hansen's disease. The text links this trespass and this outbreak in this king. It does not offer a clinical diagnosis, prove that skin disease is always sin, justify isolating or shaming people with illness or disability now, or condemn medical care. A several house is the ancient political-ritual separation of this king, not a public-health manual.
How this should shape us
Keep royal power out of work that is not yours, and keep this outbreak from becoming a diagnosis or a stigma. Do not treat people with skin disease, or anyone living apart because of illness, as Uzziah reborn.
Teach it back
Explain 2 Chronicles 26:16–21 in your own words. Include its movement, placement in Chronicles, one Samuel-Kings comparison, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one modern use the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The text explicitly links trespass and tsara'at in this case; the ancient category is broader than Hansen's disease and cannot be generalized or clinically reconstructed.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
2 Chronicles 26:16–21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 26:16–21
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
STEP Bible NET2full, 2 Chronicles 26:16–21, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of the Chronicler's God, worship, Israel, kingship, retribution, and hope, used within its access limitation rather than as uninspected detailed commentary.
Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles (2009), chapter 3, 'The People of Israel,' pp. 209–307, and chapter 4, 'Kingship,' pp. 308–383; only the official exposed openings and ranges were inspected
Supports: A recent critical reading of institutional legitimation and selective historical discourse, used without reducing all worship to elite manipulation.
Geyser-Fouché, HTS 79.1 (2023), complete official HTML, sections on selective narration, temple and personnel, royal patronage, Athaliah and Joash, exile, and power
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Supports: Ancient textual association of Uzziah's cultic trespass and skin condition, expressly bounded against modern diagnosis or illness blame.
Meyer, Verbum et Ecclesia 44.1 (2023), complete article sections discussing 2 Chronicles 26:16–21, ma'al, tsara'at, and Leviticus 13–14
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Chronicles 26:16–21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 26:16–21
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 2 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 2 Chronicles 26:16–21, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗modern scholarly monograph limited access
The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and Its Place in Biblical Thought
Sara Japhet
Eisenbrauns / Penn State University Press, English edition 1989; reprint 2009
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of the Chronicler's God, worship, Israel, kingship, retribution, and hope, used within its access limitation rather than as uninspected detailed commentary.
Exact location: Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles (2009), chapter 3, 'The People of Israel,' pp. 209–307, and chapter 4, 'Kingship,' pp. 308–383; only the official exposed openings and ranges were inspected
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
1 and 2 Chronicles as a discourse of power
Ananda Geyser-Fouche
HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 79(1), article 8011, 2023
Supports: A recent critical reading of institutional legitimation and selective historical discourse, used without reducing all worship to elite manipulation.
Exact location: Geyser-Fouché, HTS 79.1 (2023), complete official HTML, sections on selective narration, temple and personnel, royal patronage, Athaliah and Joash, exile, and power
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility: Chronicles in Its Ancient Context
Isaac Kalimi
Poznań Theological Studies repository edition, pp. 7-25, 2019 repository edition
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Exact location: Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
Why is there an asham sacrifice in Leviticus 14?
Esias E. Meyer
Verbum et Ecclesia 44(1), article 2832, 2023
Supports: Ancient textual association of Uzziah's cultic trespass and skin condition, expressly bounded against modern diagnosis or illness blame.
Exact location: Meyer, Verbum et Ecclesia 44.1 (2023), complete article sections discussing 2 Chronicles 26:16–21, ma'al, tsara'at, and Leviticus 13–14
Open source ↗